IHRSA EUROPE UPDATE
NEWS
The importance of staff satisfaction • art curtis • ihrsa chair
D
o you worry as much about your employees’ satisfaction with their jobs as you do
about member satisfaction? Are you as concerned about employee turnover as you are about member turnover? If not, perhaps you should be. Mercer, a consulting fi rm specialising
in human resources, recently released fi ndings of its What’s Working study, which surveyed nearly 30,000 workers from 17 countries in order to explore the psyche of the global workforce. T e fi ndings indicate that, despite high
unemployment rates and uncertainty about the future, people are suffi ciently dissatisfi ed with their current positions as to be considering leaving. Indeed, more than 50 per cent of those questioned were unhappy with their jobs, while 32 per cent were seriously considering quitting – that’s up from 23 per cent in 2005. Among the 25- to 34-year-old age group, 40 per cent were considering resignation. T e situation is worse still among senior managers, with 56 per cent thinking about leaving their jobs. Meanwhile another 21 per cent, though
not planning to quit, view their employers unfavourably, and have rock-bottom scores on key metrics of engagement – motivation, commitment and loyalty.
Although the annual
Working in Fitness report, conducted in the UK by SkillsActive, suggests that people in our industry are generally happy with their jobs, we will surely not be immune to the trends witnessed by Mercer. In a service-led industry that relies so heavily on the availability of young, enthusiastic staff , we cannot rest on our laurels and assume that the 40 per cent fi gure uncovered by the What’s Working survey will not apply to us. Even a small drop in levels of staff
If you have happy staff , you’re more likely to have happy members
as though they’re getting the deal they signed up for when they took the job. While times are still tough, operators
satisfaction and engagement will have a dramatic impact on member experience. It’s a simple equation, but you have a much better chance of having happy members if you have happy employees. Conversely, you have little chance of having happy members if you have unhappy employees serving your customers. Among the reasons suggested by
Mercer for the troubling fi ndings of its survey are the eff ects of cutbacks on employee perks and benefi ts caused by the great recession. Workers don’t feel
Ask the experts...... growing group exercise
What’s the best way to increase participation and revenue from group exercise (GX)? Phillip Mills, president of Les Mills International, off ers his thoughts:
To increase GX attendance, I recommend you start by setting yourself a weekly attendance goal. Most clubs have weekly GX attendance of 300-400 visits, but great GX clubs have 3,000-4,000. So set yourself some goals, implement a plan to get there, and measure your progress against that plan every month. Some key elements of the plan will be:
1. Work with your teachers to set attendance goals for each of their classes and publish a scorecard of class sizes
20 Great GX clubs have 3,000–4,000 visits a week
with reward and/or recognition for the biggest classes, most improved, etc. 2. Support your teachers with a great training and development plan. 3. Also support them by promoting their individual classes to members, and by promoting a regular series of new classes. When introducing new classes, focus on
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
what people want – three-quarters of all GX participation comes from fi ve genres: strength, cycling, dance, mind- body and martial arts. 4. Try recruiting and developing some potential ‘rockstar’ teachers. A single great teacher will, over time, attract and retain hundreds of members to a club. 5. Design a great GX studio. Good GX is one of the most motivating activities in a club, but most studios are about as exciting as hospital rooms. Once you have full classes, revenue will
come in terms of increased membership, referrals and retention. T is will have a far greater eff ect on your profi tability than any ancillary revenue source. Read more answers to this question at
www.ihrsa.org/industryleader
march 2012 © cybertrek 2012
who continue to withhold perks to save a few dollars may be acting in a shortsighted manner. Perks – ie unexpected benefi ts such as fl exible work schedules, extra vacation days, discounted services, and employee recognition and reward programmes – are important in shaping the employee experience. Relatively small investments in perks that have been well thought-out are valued by workers, and can pay big dividends in terms of increasing the level of employee engagement and retaining valued team members.
PIC: YURI ACURS/
WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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